Via the Twitterstream and other sources have come a couple of interesting sets of figures around how the internet is used and valued in a couple of different contexts. From Focus comes an infographic on The State Of The Internet that purports to look at

……..exactly who is using the Internet the most, how they are using it and how much the amount of usage is increasing.

Drawing from a range of sources including Pew, Technorati, Internet World Stats and Akamia, the information is notable not only for the statistics contained in the graphics but also for the manner in which the graphics have been reproduced.

How Old Are The Bloggers

The data related to age groups of bloggers is fascinating in that the majority of blog users are not the “tech savvy Gen ??’s” but rather those heading towards grey hair and beyond. These stats are backed up by the latest Pew Report on Social Media and Young Adults. Pew finds that though the numbers of adult bloggers has remained steady over the past few years.

Blogging has declined in popularity among both teens and young adults since 2006. Blog commenting has also dropped among teens.

Instead teens are now using social networking sites though strangely, (at least to this commentator), these same teens shy away from using Twitter with only some 8% adoption. Amongst a slew of other figures the fact that 93% of American 12-17 go online and 62% of these seek their news and current affairs online suggest that if it isn’t already apparent, schools wishing to educate about media will need to make significant changes in emphasis.

The figures also suggest that getting students blogging or using social software cannot be an end in itself. Indeed for a significant group of students blogging may be as much anathema as is doing calculus, it might just not make sense. That there are other online media options for engaging students is just another challenge for teachers to take on board. Commenting on the report Martha Irvine from Associated Press reflected that..

Tech experts say it doesn’t mean blogging is going away. Rather, it’s gone the way of the telephone and e-mail — still useful, just not sexy.

Now as if these statistics weren’t enough to send your head into a spin, there’s also 20+ Mind Blowing Social Media Statistics revisited to consider. This article is a six month comparison of trends related to the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and other online spaces.